Algeria’s diplomatic spat with Spain spills over to economic ties

Algeria has demonstrated that it is the main party in the Sahara issue by recalling its ambassador from Spain after Madrid supported Morocco’s autonomy plan for the territory, in a diplomatic escalation that spilled over to trade.

Spanish ABC paper said Spanish exports to Algeria dropped 93%, while gas was all that Spain imports from Algiers through a Mediterranean gas pipeline, due to the closure of a much larger pipeline that crosses Morocco.

Algeria’s unilateral halt of gas supplies through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline of 13 cbm meant that Algiers was ruled by an irrational elite that is bent on weaponizing gas in diplomatic disputes.

While Algeria sought to replace Spanish with Italian imports, Spanish companies looked to other African markets to replace Algeria, said the paper.

By tacitly banning Spanish imports, Algeria projects an image of a country that is shooting itself in the feet and an unreliable trade partner that can at any diplomatic spat take irrational self-harming economic decisions.